Something to keep an eye on this week....the buyer of the Coyotes needs to complete the purchase by the end of January or it is no deal....and the Coyotes will remain ownerless and a potential relocation team once again. This would be the team i'd like to see in Seattle!!!

I think the biggest question with the Yotes is whether or not Key Arena would be a suitable home for a hockey team while the arena is being built, if not, I don't think we'd have anyone looking to buy a team until things are up and running to avoid lame duck seasons elsewhere. I've heard the Key could only support 11k for hockey, but then again, the Yotes are only averaging 12k in their current situation.

We'll see. I tend to think that we won't get a hockey team until we have an arena, and by the time an owner would be looking to get their team (probably no earlier than during the season prior to the arena's grand opening), the Yotes issue would most likely be resolved one way or another.

Yeah, please do not continue to expand this league. The talent pool is diluted enough as it is. Relocate teams to more viable markets if needed, but the league is not ready to tolerate further expansion.

pinksheets wrote:I think the biggest question with the Yotes is whether or not Key Arena would be a suitable home for a hockey team while the arena is being built, if not, I don't think we'd have anyone looking to buy a team until things are up and running to avoid lame duck seasons elsewhere. I've heard the Key could only support 11k for hockey, but then again, the Yotes are only averaging 12k in their current situation.

We'll see. I tend to think that we won't get a hockey team until we have an arena, and by the time an owner would be looking to get their team (probably no earlier than during the season prior to the arena's grand opening), the Yotes issue would most likely be resolved one way or another.

I wonder if the league would allow a team that wants to come to Seattle to play home games in Portland for two years until the Seattle arena is built....I think Portland would support the team for that period of time......and a bigger fan base would be the result when they ultimately did come north.

Dilution of talent in the NHL is the biggest myth in hockey perpetuated by fans that follow perpetually losing teams or fans going on a 'trap' rant. As a life long fan of a team that has spent half its existance as one of those teams to a perpetual power house I've lived both parts of that fairy tale.

What exactly does expansion mean to my team? I'll lose 2-3 depth players maybe 1-2 marginal prospects. Each round of the draft I could probably slide down 1-2 spots otherwise (probably only significant for the first 2 rounds). That's it. What happens afterwards is a few vets stick around a few more seasons, a few kids make the leap sooner and after a few years things are back to normal (for arguments sake say 1 player career cycle or 5-6 years) If your team hasn't adjusted by then you should blame your organization.

The difference between players today and just ten years ago. Prospects are drafted way better prepared mentally and physically with better coaching. Americans in the league have gone from 15-25% and rising. Unknown hockey nations like Slovenia, Denmark, France, and Kazitstan et al are not only producing players but stars. Also since drafting is basically a volume buisness more kids get a chance to get discovered and developed. 14 kids a year. And with teams putting more emphisis on developing they prospects properly should close that 'diluted talent' window even shorter.

When there is even one (there are several every year) NHL ready player being sent back to junior or the minors and with NHL regulars and recent high first rounders like Hickey and Grabner (major robery, Florida is stupid) getting picked up on waivers then I would argue against any dilution of talent.

^ Not to mention how well a hard salary cap makes this not a problem. "Dilution of talent" isn't really a problem anywhere, having a soft cap or no cap where it's an uneven distribution of talent is the problem. Which is why basketball has done more to address it (though they still end up with ridiculous powerhouse teams) or teams like the Yanks in the MLB can go a long ways towards buying a championship. I don't see it as much of an issue.